MPs' expenses: Natascha Engel claimed for DVDs of own speech in Parliament

Natascha Engel, Labour MP for North East Derbyshire, charged the taxpayer for
copies of a DVD of her maiden speech to Parliament and a copy of a novel by
an acclaimed German writer.

Natascha Engel

By Patrick Sawer

9:00AM BST 31 May 2009

Miss Engel, a Labour backbencher, claimed £117.50 in October 2005 to pay for ten copies of the DVD from the Parliamentary Recording Unit showing her first speech since being elected in that year's General Election.

Miss Engel, who has said she wants her constituents to judge whether her expenses are justified, also claimed £12 for a copy of Thomas Mann's Nobel Prize winning novel, The Magic Mountain, set in a tuberculosis clinic in the Swiss Alps before the First World War.

In November 2005 she charged the taxpayer for a set of socialist history posters to decorate her office. Miss Engel claimed £28.95 on her office expenses for the material, bought by mail-order from the People's History Museum in Manchester.

They included reproductions of historic posters, including "Women vote Labour", "Labour Clears The Way" and "Women Workers".

She also claimed for a set of May Day greetings cards to celebrate workers' day and a set of cards by the 19th century artist Walter Crane, entitled "Solidarity of Labour".

These were delivered, along with the posters, to her constituency office in the Derbyshire village of Eckington.

Miss Engel claimed for the costs of all the items under her Incidental Expenses Provision (IEP) which is designed to cover the costs of running her office.

After being contacted by The Sunday Telegraph Miss Engel said she would be returning the money for the DVDs, book, posters and greetings cards to the fees office.

She said: "The copies of the maiden speech, the charge for the book and the May Day greetings cards are inappropriate and I will pay them back."

An analysis by The Sunday Telegraph has shown that Miss Engel is one of the MPs who offers the least value for money when her work in Parliament is compared to her expenses claims.

Despite attending only a third of votes, speaking in only 14 debates and submitting just four questions to Ministers, she claimed a total of £149,621 in expenses for travel, home, office and staffing.

Miss Engel has already promised to hold a series of "kangaroo courts" to allow her constituents to judge whether she should stand down over her expenses claims.

It was revealed earlier this month in The Daily Telegraph that shortly after being elected in 2005 she spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers' cash on furniture and fittings for her second home under her Accidental Costs Allowance (ACA).

On being elected Miss Engel bought an £1,800 television, a £2,900 sofa and a £1,950 bed.

The fees office docked her payments to the maximum £750 each allowed for the television and bed and £2,000 for the sofa.

She also bought a dishwasher, fridge freezer, washing machine, microwave and kettle, at a total cost of £1,666, which was paid in full.

Miss Engel was also reimbursed hundreds of pounds for expensive kitchenware, including six champagne flutes at a cost of £30, a £13.90 Nigella Lawson kitchen herb chopper and a £79.99 "mobile cool box" to drive her groceries from London to Derbyshire.

Last night Miss Engel said: "The maiden speech DVDs were requested by constituents, but that is not a justification. The charge for the posters was to decorate our new office.

"I don't think they promote the Labour Party so much as political history. The expense for these posters will, though, also be returned.

"In mitigation, I had a baby three weeks after the General Election and so my office manager at the time (who no longer works for me), had to set up the constituency office largely in my absence. I take full responsibility for the claims made, though."

She defended buying furniture and fittings for her second home, and pointed out that she had claimed for few items since then other than mortgage interest, utilities and council tax.

Miss Engel said: "We moved our London home to a less expensive house and remortgaged it in order to cover the cost of renovating a very run-down house.

"I did not charge any of that to the taxpayer, and that comes to well over double any total ACA claims I have ever made. I have never claimed for food, nor flipped homes, nor made any financial gain from the second home allowance."

Regarding her work rate Miss Engel pointed out she had been on maternity leave last year and since then her attendance record had risen sharply.

She added: "Many MPs ask thousands of questions and clog up the civil service in order to 'up' their work rate. I think this is wrong and made a conscious decision not to do it.

"In debates the Speaker chooses who to call and this is often determined by seniority. I am a new backbencher and therefore have no seniority. I hope this is something we can look at in the future.

"The work rate does not take into account any committees we sit on, meetings we attend and organise, and most importantly, any work we do in the constituency."

Natascha Engel

Job: Labour MP for North East Derbyshire; parliamentary private secretary to Minister of State at Cabinet Office